Continental Eco Contact 3

Excellence grip in wet and dry, No more losing grip in standing water

These tires came with my new car Skoda Octavia. Overall it is a good tire, but it has short "life time". I had better experience with Bravuris tires, which costs little less.

9000 miles left side front, correct pressure ect down to ware bars not good enough especially on a 1.1 eco Panda driven on local roads at less than 60mph

very good all rounder, seem to work well in dry or wet conditions.

to noisy

I have tried a variety of tyres (always sets of 4, always newly tracked and balanced) on my 2008 Daihatsu Sirion and 2006, 2007 and 2010 Perodua Myvis (Myvi/Sirion is the same car with trim differences). All are very tyre sensitive, being light and tall cars with willing engines.

These EcoContact3s (?214 fitted tracked and balanced for 4) are extremely quiet and stable, with minimal road noise which is particularly impressive on newly dressed, poor or concrete surfaces. The car feels most stable on these tyres and tracks dead ahead without wandering, but the pay-off is the awfully vague steering feel and reluctance to turn in on our twisty roads, with the dead centre steering position returning strongly. This makes our rural roads less enjoyable than on any other set I have tried. A spirited drive results in vague cornering, running wide due to very slow turn in and mildly achey wrists from fighting the dead centre return.

These Eco3s were chosen at the toss of a coin over the (identically priced) Continental SportContacts, due to the Eco's higher mileage wear and better mpg, but unless these triple the wear time of the SportContacts, I would not choose them again-they are dull and tiring on our rural roads. Quiet, refined, stable and on Motorways, superb, but too compromised down the lanes for me.

Tried:
Sime Astars: at 30k front 60k rear-perished but not worn out: hard as nails, quiet, very poor wet grip, braking, aquaplaning. Lethal but great mile/?.

Avon CR Eco: good mileage, good mpg, a little dull, good all rounder, easy to ignore as do nothing especially wrong.

Goodyear Eagle NCT2: good all rounder, reasonable feel, quiet-can't say more as running these on our 2010 Myvi now

BF Goodrich G Grip: superb turn in, superb grip, the noisiest tyre I have ever used, poor mpg, dead at 11k miles. Ace tyre but wore too quick and ridiculously noisy. My choice if chasing point to point, though!

What would I go for next time? I'll try the SportContacts unless the Goodyears really impress me. Not EcoContacts for my roads and driving style.

These tyres were on my car when i bought the car new. I have just been told by the garage at a service that they are approaching borderline and will need replaced soon. Ive done 27k and thats them just needing replaced, pretty good i think.

They handle very well on the road. I drive along back roads often to my training and if im late i do tend to put the foot down a bit and the tyres have gripped the road great wet and dry. Better than the cheap ones i had on my last car.

The Toureg is an excellent vehicle but very fast with tons of torque and rearing to go at any opportunity, hence the tyres don't last very long. Nonetheless, I am surprised how little: I have got from these tyres 15K!

Fitted on a 1.0 L corsa, replacing previous Michelin energys. Immediately noticed improved streering turn-in on corners. Very good braking. Drove home in dark through heave rain storms with large pools of water in road during the winter just past, these tyres delivered reassuringly strong levels of grip. My car has no power steering, fitting these tyres made it much more pleasant to drive compared to the michelin's, lovely light steering while still retaining a firm grip on the road. Highly recommended if you have a 1.0 or 1.2 L corsa or similar small car.